Study: Smoking Ban Has Cleared Air

June 02, 2004|By GARRET CONDON; Courant Staff Writer

Supporters of Connecticut's comprehensive smoking ban said it would clear the air in bars and restaurants. New research shows it has done just that.

Researchers took before-and-after air samples in seven Hartford establishments that allowed smoking before the state ban went into full effect on April 1. Within weeks after the ban took effect, the levels of fine, airborne particles that are released in large numbers by burning cigarettes dropped 76 percent.

The watering holes where air was sampled -- first on March 25 and then on April 23 -- were Bourbon Street North, Black-Eyed Sally's, Coach's Sports Bar & Grille, On the Rocks, McKinnon's Irish Pub, The Half Door and The Spigot Cafe.

Two other restaurants that had non-smoking policies in place before April 1 -- the Sheraton Hartford Hotel bar and restaurant in East Hartford and the Wood-n-Tap Bar and Grill in Hartford -- also were included for purposes of comparison.

Mark Travers, a research affiliate at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., which conducted the air survey, said the findings were not a surprise, but he said that it is helpful to quantify the effects of smoking bans.

``This is real-world data,'' he said. ``We went out to actual places where people are working and playing.''

The tiny particles that were measured are deeply inhaled into the lungs and can cause health problems. Travers noted that they also are a marker for the roughly 4,000 hazardous chemicals emitted by smoldering cigarettes.

The only surprise in the study, Travers said, was that average particle levels from the first readings were somewhat lower than in other cities that have been evaluated. The reason, Travers said, was that the Hartford establishments are larger and have higher ceilings than many of the bars and restaurants tested elsewhere in the country. As a result, a greater volume of air diluted a comparable amount of smoke, he said.

The lower baseline average, he said, led to a slightly lower decline in post-ban measures, compared with some other cities. The 76 percent drop in Hartford compares with an 82 percent reduction in a study of seven cities that have enacted smoking bans. A before-and-after study in Delaware found a 90 percent drop.

The EPA has set 65 micrograms per cubic meter as the 24-hour limit for exposure to these particles. The Hartford study found that the average level of such indoor pollution before the ban was 104 micrograms per cubic meter. After the ban, the average level dropped to 25.

Because the concentration of particles is affected by the volume of air in a given space, researchers computed an ``active smoker density'' figure to take this into account. Among the bars sampled, the highest such measurements before the ban took effect were found at The Half Door and The Spigot.

A discussion of this story with Courant Staff Writer Garret Condon is scheduled to be shown on New England Cable News each hour today between 9 a.m. and noon.